From the time that he sketched the plans for Olana in 1845 to when he completed his Hudson villa, artist Frederic Church was operating with a design philosophy that he called “viewshed.” The concept of viewshed meant that from anywhere at Olana, Church’s home, studio and 250-acre estate, visitors could see stunning landscapes, incorporating vistas of not only the Hudson Valley, but also Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. It was Church’s architectural technique for combating the rampant and intrusive spread of 19th-century industrialization, to create unimpeded views of the natural beauty of the great green American Northeast. Olana – itself an eclectic and difficult-to-define building, designwise – is an architectural masterpiece because of its harmonious blending of construction and nature.